Wanted: Weapons of Fate Hands-on

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We put Grin's upcoming bullet-bending shooter to the test.

By Ryan Geddes

It seems like every major Hollywood film has a videogame tie-in these days, and if a movie happens to be based on a comic series or graphic novel, you can pretty much bet on seeing a game released alongside the flick. Sometimes that's good news for gamers, and other times it makes us quietly weep.

Not all films and comics translate well to an interactive medium, although that hasn't always stopped studios from trying. But if there was ever a franchise that was tailor-made for translation to an interactive medium, it's Wanted. Based on the graphic novel and film of the same name, Wanted: Weapons of Fate takes up right where the movie left off, making it a sort of Wanted v. 1.5 for the franchise.

Fledgling assassin Wesley Gibson and his dear old dad Cross are back, and this time they're tangling with the French chapter of the Fraternity. And is there anything more satisfying than shooting French people with curving bullets? Wanted: Weapons of Fate draws heavily from both the film and graphic novel versions of the Wanted universe, which means you'll be able to change the trajectory of your bullets in mid-air, slow down time to take down multiple foes, and cause devastating explosions by firing a hail of colliding gunfire.

Wanted: Weapons of Fate is being developed by Grin Barcelona under a publishing deal with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, and both companies seem keen on sticking to the vibe of the film to create an intense single-player experience. There's no multiplayer in Wanted, so the team has more time to focus on the story of Wesley and Cross's hunt for the French Fraternity fanatics.

Wanted is a third-person shooter with controls that will be instantly familiar if you've played a game in the genre recently. On Xbox 360, the right trigger fires, the left trigger aims and the A button allows you to take cover. The X button reloads your weapon, and tapping B when close to a fool lets you perform a deadly melee attack. Of all the possible attacks I was shown in the demo (which was limited to just pistols and knife attacks), I found the melee attacks to be the most satisfying. The animations are very cool, and you can't help but feel like a badass when Wesley pops over a storage crate to stab a due in the cranium. Good night, Frenchie.

Any good assassin knows how to use cover, and Wesley and Cross (who's also playable) will make heavy use of the environment to stay alive in the game. The cover system is similar to that of Gears of War. To stick to cover, just hit the A button when near a wall or structure. Once there, you can peek around corners, aim and even blind fire if you're feeling gung-ho. Blind firing has the added advantage of disorienting your enemies briefly, allowing you to move undetected for a brief period afterward. The screen is supposed to fade to gray after you fire a few shots, signaling that you're OK to make a break for it.

As with Gears, you can move from cover to cover by holding a direction on the left analog stick and tapping the A button (an icon will pop up letting you know what your cover options are). Moving from spot to spot like this doesn't just keep you from getting your head popped. Chaining these moves together rapidly will build up your adrenaline meter, which can be cashed in for special moves like Assassin Time (slowing things down) and curved bullets.

Don't mess with a guy in an assassin suit.

Let's say you're pinned down in a corner and two Fraternity goons are unloading on you from behind cover. If you have enough adrenaline, you can press and hold the right bumper to bring up an arc that tracks from the barrel of your gun to the enemy's position. If it shows up red, that means you don't have a shot. But if you rotate the left analog stick with the RB depressed, your arc will shift and eventually show up white, which means it's killin' time. When you release the bumper, you'll fire, with one of three results. Depending on where you hit your target, he'll either stumble out of cover so you can pop him in the open, crumple in a satisfying heap or – if your aim is especially good – become the center of a bullet-time cinematic that shows your shot entering his skull. Nice.

Wanted is scheduled for release in March 2009, and it already looks and feels solid. The controls are intuitive, although Wesley's ambling gait takes some getting used to. The environments are detailed and engaging, and the lighting and shadows were impressive in the demo levels I played. There's a nice depth-of-field effect when Wesley zooms in on his targets, and the enemy AI seemed fairly smart and aggressive.

The sections I was shown were fairly brief, so it remains to be seen how the full game will hold up. The curving bullets, cover chaining and Assassin Time features are interesting, but will they be enough to make Wanted stand out from the ever-growing pack of third-person shooters? If Grin can keep the pace frenetic and the action satisfying, the potential is definitely there.